liberal japonicus

by liberal japonicus Lots of folks say that Trump is going to be charged in NY, which is the first of four listed legal problems facing Trump that are listed in this BBC article. In other news, my wife and daughter have become baseball fans because of the WBC and Samurai Japan and possibly because … Read more

liberal japonicus This post is a lot shorter than it should be, but going into it any deeper will have me plunge off the continental shelf. It starts with this piece interviewing Jing Tsu, a Taiwanese-American professor of Chinese literature at Yale. Despite the article's dependence on what and where the two are eating: We … Read more

by liberal japonicus Seymour Hersh reporting on who sabotaged the Nord Pipeline, from former frontpager Thomas Nephew’s FB. https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream More recently, Victoria Nuland expressed satisfaction at the demise of the newest of the pipelines. Testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in late January she told Senator Ted Cruz, “​Like you, I am, and … Read more

by liberal japonicus It's been a month, but it is pretty astonishing how much s**t has coming down. A short list Desantis! Ilhan Omar! Haley! Chinese Spy Balloons! Grammys and 50 years of hip hop! Tanks in the Ukraine! AI Arms race! The links are meant only to prime the pump. Take the post where … Read more

by liberal japonicus For me, it’s with a sigh of relief that not only Japan and the US, but the UK and Korea as well have been eliminated from the World Cup. It’s not that I was rooting against them, it is just that this whole World Cup seems like a totally tawdry affair that … Read more

by liberal japonicus Since twitter is apparently pain grillé, I felt like I should serve up this morsel. Maricopa County, AZ Board of Supervisors were called on to resign, nullify the election, use paper ballots & more Here’s a quick 2:20 video compilation I did of the 1st public meeting post Election Day This went … Read more

by liberal japonicus A thread for everyone to talk about election aftermaths. I realize that in a lot of places we still don’t know, such as Georgia (runoff), Alaska (ranked voting) and counting mail-in ballots (Nevada, California, other places), but certainly a lot to mull over. The thing that I’m wondering about is how much … Read more

by liberal japonicus Well, that was instructional. https://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2005/12/typepad-outage-details.html We could move to a wordpress blog, though we really don’t need the bells and whistles. The thing I would like (though it may not be possible) is to keep all the comments in a way that attaches them to the posts. Feel free to chat about … Read more

by liberal japonicus Opening a new thread, pretty amazed by the happenings in the UK. This analysis of Suella Braverman’s resignation letter can provide some background. Braverman is an odd bird, imo. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/19/who-is-suella-braverman-home-office And, most importantly, a round up of social media jokes https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/19/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-suella-braverman-your-removal-is-complete Talk about this or anything else you like

by liberal japonicus In a discussion about how to set up and evaluate moodle discussions, I wanted to make the point that there were a lot of assumptions that were being made and I passed on this article from 2013 about WEIRD (Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries) subjects of psychology research … Read more

by liberal japonicus Seems we are due another open thread. Seems an approrpriate continuation to note that October was the eighth month, but turned into the 10th. Any other date related trivia to share?

by liberal japonicus Something that might interest some, the Asia-Pacific Journal has a nice collection of articles on the Abe legacy. All of them are from a left of center perspective, so you aren’t going to get anything about what a great statesman he was. It is an interesting comparison between Abe, who will have … Read more

by liberal japonicus I have a short essay that I send to foreign friends teaching at universities in Japan when they lose a parent, and here is a bit of self-plagiarism: Japanese culture generally accords a great amount of respect to death and the process of grief. Oftentimes, these are related as quaint behavior of … Read more

by liberal japonicus That’s how a FB friend posted about this Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is in a critical condition after being shot while making a speech in the western city of Nara. His successor, Fumio Kishida called the shooting an unforgivable act, and said he hoped Abe – the country’s longest-serving prime … Read more

by liberal japonicus A bit late, but folks here might have some comments and perhaps some insight into the push to make Disney pay. https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/04/27/disney-in-the-dark-about-florida-move-to-dissolve-self-government/ A college friend of mine in Florida observed that Orange and Osceola counties went Democratic in the last election, so this plugs into it and he also feels that this … Read more

by liberal japonicus That’s French for a close call, but there was nothing beautiful about that escape. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/24/emmanuel-macron-wins-french-presidential-election-say-projected-results I suppose I should take my good news where I can get it, but one wonders where then next eruption/irruption of neo-fascism is going to happen. Place your bets!

by liberal japonicus As always, a quasi-poen thread, but was hoping UKians might comment on this https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/09/rishi-sunaks-hopes-of-becoming-prime-minister-are-over-say-top-tories?fbclid=IwAR1p2vWhNBN9xJOF7fGxg2ERMwl7SM37vlho5aXJmaOtLYyN7u9QsQRxI2w Saw some YouTube videos from Good Morning Britain (and god, what an embarassment! That fanfare opening is half finished! I suppose one can’t expect much from a program that employed Piers Morgan, but wow) where Adil Ray keeps … Read more

by liberal japonicus A thread for book recommendations. It grows out of the suggestion that a closer reading of Military Science Fiction would have stood some in better stead, so I’m open to people defining what Military SF is and how it differs from, say Star Trek. As a side note, I have a friend … Read more

by liberal japonicus As a quick post, this WaPo article was interesting for the way it organized the information. Anyway, a thread to discuss, have at it.

by liberal japonicus This came across my morning reading, it’s an analysis of a Chinese news broadcast on Ukraine. Tucker Carlson makes an appearance. The report is from early in the conflict and one hopes that Chinese viewers don’t have as short and febrile a memory as we seem to have in America and are … Read more

by liberal japonicus The discussion about ‘tankies’ in the comments had me thinking about a number of things. I imagine all of you have seen various discussions of how the Ukraine conflict has laid bare some racist thinking. If you haven’t, these two Daily Show segments can probably catch you up. Here and here Or … Read more

by liberal japonicus A thread for non Ukraine stuff. Mentioned in the comments was a shortage of brass as it relates to ammunition. I wanted to make a cutesy comment about how I didn’t think there was really a shortage of brass (with the meaning of gall, chutzpah, etc) and went off to look for … Read more

by liberal japonicus I thought I should open a thread for more talk. There’s lots of Ukraine stuff to read about, and here are a few things that caught my eye This Vox article about Putin’s war strategy If you aren’t familiar with Bellingcat, check them out I wouldn’t put a huge amount of weight … Read more

by liberal japonicus Though we’ve not talked about Ukraine much, I see a few rumblings. A lot of outlets shared Fiona Hill’s shade on Trump, cause clickbait baby! but the whole interview has a lot more stuff. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-health-economy-fiona-hill-1cb4fee8f64b41479468a07eb32ad304 If news outlets had done another deep dive into the cesspool that was Trump’s foreign policy, that … Read more

by liberal japonicus I’ve been getting notifications for Noema Magazine (https://www.noemamag.com/) that often has articles on topics that might be in the wheelhouse of folks here. I’m tempted to toss up several of them, but rather than do that, if folks find an article they are interested in, send it in and I’ll make it … Read more

by liberal japonicus First a classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k So, I realize that this is pretty much true with every generation, such that you have the meta-joke of the neaderthal telling his offspring that Ugh had to kill wooly mammoth with bare hands, he have no fancy club. But I’m really struck by the number of posts … Read more

by liberal japonicus So many idiots, so little time. 3 economists tell us that the lockdowns had no effect on the death rate. I don’t like to crap on other fields of study, but if you aren’t going to include all the inputs (like anti-vaxx sentiments and open resistance to measures), seems a bit off, … Read more

by Michael Cain Today the Senate Judiciary Committee approved antitrust legislation sponsored by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that would require Apple, Meta (Facebook), Amazon, and Alphabet (Google) to effectively separate the platform and application portions of their businesses. I will be fascinated to see how far up the software stack they try … Read more

by liberal japonicus To get things started https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/31/there-is-nothing-more-magical-resurrected-theatre-brings-ancient-greece-to-life I was a latecomer to plays, and I still find it difficult to read them. And I’ve never been to a classical Greek play, but this seems like a nice bucket item. Anyway, an open thread for any theatrical experiences out there.

by liberal japonicus Here Otherwise, an open thread.